1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to vacuum decarburization and degassing of molten stainless steel. More particularly, the invention relates to a method of degassing and decarburizing the stainless steel while oxygen is being blown onto a steel bath surface in a vacuum. Decarburization is efficiently performed while minimizing oxidation of Cr in the steel bath and, at the same time, providing decrease of the temperature of the molten steel to obtain a low oxygen content.
2. Description of the Related Art
It has been disclosed to perform vacuum decarburization in a molten bath in making high-Cr steel or the like, in which oxygen gas is blown from the side wall of a container into a relatively shallow position in the steel bath below the molten bath surface. This has been disclosed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 51-140815. Also, Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 55-2759 discloses a method of making extremely low-carbon stainless steel in which inert gas is supplied in the presence of slag.
Although it is possible for these methods to promote decarburization, the problem of preventing a decrease of the temperature of the molten steel, which is a problem during decarburization, has not heretofore been taken into consideration.
In the refining of stainless steel, the concept of suppressing oxidation of Cr by controlling the carbon content of the steel at 0.15 wt % before it is subjected to vacuum decarburization has been disclosed. However, decarburization is the main object of even this method. No mention is made suggesting the idea of preventing decrease of the temperature of the molten steel, and the problem of suppressing oxidation of Cr during vacuum decarburization is not described.
Disclosed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2-77518 is a method for preventing a decrease of the temperature of molten steel by blowing oxygen from a top-blow lance in order to cause secondary combustion during vacuum decarburization. However, this method is mainly concerned with technology for plain steel not containing Cr. The method of Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2-77518 is not suited to refine stainless steel because of the following reasons.
Since Cr in molten steel is very easily oxidized by oxygen, it is very disadvantageous to directly use the top-blow oxygen method commonly used for refining plain steel to refine stainless steel. If the top-blow oxygen method commonly used for refining plain steel is directly used to refine stainless steel, oxidation of Cr progresses, and costs rise due to loss of Cr, and the molten steel is contaminated by the generated oxidized Cr.